Little Acorn

Feeling Nostalgic

Maybe it's my upcoming birthday (one month today!), but I've been feeling nostalgic lately, and that's why I just couldn't pass up this little stack of vintage seventies children's sewing patterns at the thrift store even though it's doubtful I'll ever make anything from them. Actually I passed up quite a few of them and am regretting it now. Ten cents each and I only bought 5 - what was I thinking? I often had clothes made for me as a child and I'm pretty sure one of my velvet Christmas dresses (there was always a velvet Christmas dress) came from this pattern, as well as a jumper and a cotton summer dress too. Not the jumpsuit though. I really could have rocked the jumpsuit as a chubby kindergartener.

This is the pattern I'd be most likely to make something from. Those little peasant tops just never go out of style for little girls.

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Just another couple of images from some of the other vintage patterns...

My Potager

Usually I call it the kitchen garden, but I'm feeling rather French today, so I'm going with "potager". So far most of it still just looks like plain old dirt... No sign of the potatoes yet. I'm dying to dig one up to see what's happening down there, but I'm resisting the urge so far. The peas and shallots have both popped up and seem to be doing well, but other than that, NOTHING. It's been perfect seed weather and I did my research on how and when to plant things, but I just don't have faith. I've never been good with seeds and I'm also very very a little impatient, so I'm having trouble believing that those patches of dirt I water diligently will ever be lettuce, mesclun, carrots, chives, parsley or scallions (those are the things I've planted so far that haven't sprouted yet). I've already decided that I should have taken the easy (and expensive) way and just bought plants from the nursery, but I'm stubborn and I think that if other people can grown from seed I can learn to do it too. Some trial and error will likely be involved, but I will grown things from seed!
I know my blog has been pretty garden-centric lately, but I promise I'll get back to some crafting/collecting/cooking content soon. I think I have spring fever - I just want to be outside all the time!

Happy Earth Day

Where else would I celebrate Earth Day but in my garden? It was a glorious sunny, breezy and warm morning and I could practically hear everything growing out there. I may not own much land, but what I have I'm making more beautiful, more productive, more bio-diverse and more friendly to birds and insects all the time. When I look around my yard and see all the work I still want to do (and there's a lot of it), it's good to remind myself where there are now flowers, trees, shrubs, vines and vegetables there was once nothing but mud, rocks, weeds, broken glass and vintage garbage. I can't get over how ALIVE my garden is now. The birds wake me up every morning, nests are being constructed in all the trees and the hummingbirds are stopping by daily to see if the honeysuckle has bloomed yet.The mason bees are out there pollinating, the ladybugs are doing their job and keeping the place aphid-free and I'm looking forward to the butterflies and dragonflies making their appearance in the summer. I'm in such a good mood today I'm not even going to say anything bad about the snails.

It's good to be home

Although it was good to be away, too. I had a great week hanging with my Mom in my home town and now I'm back where David seems to have survived. I swear he ate nothing but Froot Loops and toast in my absence (even though he's a fabulous cook) and he seems to have watched way too much late night television for someone who has a job. But he did water the seeds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust and clean the bathroom for my arrival, so he obviously wasn't too weakened from his all carbs/no sleep bachelorman week. While I was gone spring arrived and the garden has exploded. All my perennials are joyously thrusting themselves out of their winter sleep, all the shrubs have fresh new green leaves, the daffodils are smiling and nodding all over the yard and the grass seems to be growing an inch every day. Unfortunately the weeds have also exploded. Wowza. I have a new weed this year which is proving very successful and is spreading itself through the lawns and bed and all over our gravel driveway. From doing a little research, I think it's chickweed. It's prettier than most of my weeds with its little white flowers, and it's shallowly rooted and not too hard to pull and it smells a lot better than the Herb Robert, but the rapid spread is rather alarming so I'm trying to get it under control before it gets much further. It's making the dandelions look very well behaved. Chickweed, yes? Any ideas for getting rid of it?
 

Unexpected Blogiday

Is a holiday away from your blog a blogiday? After the Easter weekend I decided to stay on at my Mom's and continue the fun through the week, so I'll be away from here until the weekend. She is doing a reading of some of her latest work, so I wanted to be here for that and then I thought I might as well make it a real holiday and stay the week. I'm having a lovely time walking in the old-growth forest, eating tasty Easter leftovers, sleeping in and visiting. It's good. David has been put in charge of the newly sprouting vegetable patch at home and he's a little apprehensive about his watering abilities, but he'll be fine.

Talk to you all next weekend! 

Happy Easter

Ahhh, Easter has been good here. We celebrated the glorious return of spring at my Mom's with schnitzel, spaetzle and red cabbage. No pictures of that to share as we were too busy gleefully stuffing our faces, but here's a heart-rendingly sweet chick to once again wish you a Happy Easter!

Happy Easter

I hope your day is filled with Easter Joy just like the card says, but hopefully you won't have to deal with gigantic chicks the size of a small child whose unhatched siblings you've stolen from what must be their truly enormous chicken mothers and you're now forced to protect yourself with nothing but a branch of over-sized pussy willow. Those beaks are sharp, little one. Be careful.

Easter is almost here!

Tomorrow is Good Friday and I don't know how it happened, but Easter really snuck up on me this year. Maybe it's because it's still too cold and grey out there more often than not. Probably it has a lot to do with the fact that David and I will be visiting my Mom over the holidays so I'm not cooking or baking anything and I'm not even decorating eggs this year, which just seems all wrong. Because I still feel like I'm battling the end of winter I'm not even doing any spring-y crafting, which is too bad, because I love the Easter palette of purple and yellow, blue and pink. And you get all these super-cute but at the same time disturbing images of baby animals doing bizarre things with other baby animals, like in this vintage Easter image. What exactly is going on here? What are those chicks up to? Is the crazed master chick pulling on the reigns keeping a supply of newborn worker chicks on board to fuel his fiendish transportation plan? Are the newly hatching chicks destined for some sort of cannibalistic ritual? Check out the look in that chicks eyes - he definitely has evil plans. And is that some sort of disemboweled worm he's using to control the chick that's doing all the work? I'm just saying... cute, but also pretty disturbing.

Finally

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, that's better. The first of the daffodils are finally blooming and the weather is forecast to be clear and sunny all weekend long. I know it could just be a tease, but it's starting to feel like maybe spring is finally coming. Yay for spring! Yay for sunshine! Yay for flowers! Yay for yellow!

Spring

Spring is NOT springing up around here. March came in like a lion and went out like a...what's a windy, wet and cold animal? A walrus with gas? We've had exactly ONE lovely day of seasonal weather so far this month and that was on Sunday. After our legwarmer photo shoot David and I worked in the garden for awhile and for the first time in a long time it wasn't grey, blowing or rainy. I was without a sweater and the sun felt wonderful warming my shoulders. I planted some shallots, checked on the peas and potatoes (no sprouts yet), mowed the lawn for the first time this year, pulled a bunch of weeds, scattered some poppy seeds, loaded the composter and did some pruning. The yard was alive with all the bird song, as well as lots of fighting/romancing (I can't tell the difference). There were sparrows of every sort, bushtits (go ahead and snicker, I do), purple finches and of course the robins. The robins this year are a little...eerie. There are a few of them that are just plain curious about me. I can stand a foot away and have a conversation with them and they will stay there, cock their heads like they understand and just tweet back at me, rather than flying off like a sensible bird would. Last year the robins were very successful in their babymaking and by the summer we had a gaggle (maybe 8 or 10) juvenile robins hanging around in the yard. I don't know anything about ornithology, but could these robins be some of last years babies and are just so used to me out there that they know I'm no threat? Are they just particularly stupid trusting birds? I don't know what it is, but it is awfully nice to have some company out there. Yes, I did just admit that I hold conversations with the birds in my yard. It's just one of the items on my neighbours list of why they think I'm crazy...